October 16th, 2010: How to essay

 

Wear a Heart on Your Sleeve

It is now time for origami! By the end of this you will successfully be able to make a 3D paper heart. This skill is very handy for Valentine's day and passing notes to your “sweet heart” in high school. You will need one to twenty pieces of normal printer paper, this way you'll have room to mess up. I don't see anyone needing more than twenty pieces of paper, but if you feel like you may need more, by all means, grab more paper. Along with the paper you will need a little patience, two free hands, possibly a trash basket, some tape and a finely sharpened pencil, these last two are for if you want to cheat.

Now, sit in a comfy chair in front of any kind of flat surface you can use as a table. Take your first sheet of paper and lay it horizontally in front of you, think of the horizon if you can't remember which way is horizontally or vertically. If this still confuses you, put the sheet of paper with the long side of the rectangle towards you. Fold this sheet of paper towards you, “hotdog style” or horizontally in half. Once you are content with that fold, repeat and fold the paper towards you, “hotdog style” again, If you want, mark the middle of the rectangle. Make sure to smooth out the edges, so the heart doesn't come out look odd and bumpy. If you are a perfectionist, you can fold the to ends together making a rectangle half the length and mark the middle of the rectangle. This will help to avoid a lop-sided heart. You do not have to do this step however.

Make sure the open part of the “hotdog” is towards you, this is very important for steps later on in the process. Fold one of the sides of the rectangle into the center of the rectangle, making a right angle. Make sure the side you fold is, yet again, the open part of the “hotdog”. You should have an open part of the “hotdog” facing towards you, and facing toward the inside of the right angle just made.

Now, fold the other side to mirror that. This should make a triangle at the bottom with two long rectangles coming up, or an arrow pointing at you. If you have now messed up, take a deep breath, crumple the paper in anger and throw it in the trash, grab a new piece of paper and begin again. If you don't want to waste paper however, calmly unfold the piece of paper, breathe and simply begin again.

Flip your paper over, now you see a difference in the triangle and rectangles. Take one of the long rectangle flaps and fold it down toward the outside of the triangle, so that it is right next to the long edge of the triangle. Repeat on the other side. It should now look kind of like something a superhero would have as an emblem.

Fold each of those flaps down toward the bottom of the heart. This should make the shape of the top of a heart. Tuck the rectangles into the long edge of the triangle, they might stay but if you want you may use tape so the heart doesn't explode open the minute you put it down on the table or throw it across the room to your “sweet heart”.

You have hopefully now had success in making a 3D paper heart, this success may have come after a few tries, but you still did it! You can now decorate it with sparkles, stickers, drawings and give them away as valentines instead of having to buy them! Hopefully, making this didn't cause too many paper cuts, if so put some Neosporin and a band-aid on the cuts, you'll be good as new in a few days. For now, take out the trash which might be full of failures then be proud of yourself in learning your new paper heart making skill.